Measuring Optomechanics with a Photon STM in the High Vacuum Environment

• Author / Creator

  Reid, Kyle L

• Optomechanics, the sensing of mechanical movement using optical modes, has seen great advancement in recent years and has been used for its high displacement sensitivity to couple to a variety of mechanical devices. Torsional devices have historically been used for measuring de Haas-van Alphen effect, shear modulus, superfluids, superconductors, the angular momentum of light, switching of magnetic states, and other applications. Combining these two together, a silicon microdisk coupled to a torsional resonator has been observed before to have sensitivities of 4 nrad Hz−1/2 and 7 fm Hz−1/2.
  A cryogenic ultra-high vacuum (UHV) system holds the possibilities of analyzing these devices at 4 K in a much higher vacuum than has been studied before. We have retrofitted a former STM with a tapered optical fiber to couple light to a silicon microdisk. This “Photon STM” (P-STM) has the potential to not only couple to optical devices, but map the optical topography of a sample by using a modified tunnel current technique. This thesis shows how the P-STM was constructed and demonstrated its ability to couple to a 38 μm diameter optical disk and measured a nearby torsional resonator in high vacuum, with sensitivities down to 200 fm Hz−1/2 and 80 nrad Hz−1/2.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Optomechanics
  • Optical Fiber Pulling
  • STM

• Graduation date

  Spring 2015

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3804XR8R

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.